Toronto Star

Fujikawa is first male pro golfer to come out

American who made PGA Tour cut at 16 had struggled about being open with his sexuality

- DES BIELER

Tadd Fujikawa, who in 2007 became the second-youngest player to make the cut at a PGA Tour event, has come out as gay, and he is believed to be the first male profession­al golfer to do so.

“I can’t wait for the day we all can live without feeling like we’re different and excluded,” he said in a recent post on Instagram.

“I’ve been back and forth for a while about opening up about my sexuality,” Fujikawa, 27, said in his post. “I thought that I didn’t need to come out because it doesn’t matter if anyone knows. But I remember how much other’s stories have helped me in my darkest times to have hope.

“I spent way too long pretending, hiding, and hating who I was. I was always afraid of what others would think/say. I’ve struggled with my mental health for many years because of that and it put me in a really bad place.

“Now I’m standing up for myself and the rest of the LGBTQ community in hopes of being an inspiratio­n and making a difference in someone’s life.”

Fujikawa’s golfing career has faltered in recent years, after he burst onto the scene as a teenager. He qualified for the 2006 U.S. Open as a 15-year-old amateur, and he turned profession­al the following year, after making it to the weekend at the Sony Open in his native Hawaii.

He made a dozen starts in PGA Tour events between 2007 and 2012, the latter seeing the most recent occasion on which he made a cut on that circuit, and he played in the 2017 Sony Open.

Fujikawa has also competed on the PGA-sanctioned Web.com and Mackenzie Tours, playing in four events in Canada last year.

Fujikawa has shared his strug- gles with anxiety and depression in the past, saying in a July social media post that some recent therapy sessions had led to “quite a bit of improvemen­t in my mental health.”

In December, after winning the Hawaii State Open for what he said was his first victory in seven years, he expressed gratitude “to everyone who has supported me and helped me to keep going when I was at my lowest.”

In the post this week in which he came out, Fujikawa said, “I don’t expect everyone to understand or accept me. But please be gracious enough to not push your beliefs on me or anyone in the LGBTQ community. My hope is this post will inspire each and every one of you to be more empathetic and loving towards one another.” “You the man Tadd! The world could use a bit more love these days,” another pro golfer, Canada’s Mackenzie Hughes, said on Twitter on Wednesday, adding, “Keep doing you.”

Fujikawa told Outsports: “The love and support have been overwhelmi­ng. I’m so glad that I came out. I can finally be the best version of me.”

According to Outsports, a website that examines the intersecti­on of sports and LGBTQ issues, openly gay active female pro golfers have included Hamilton’s Alena Sharp, Mianne Bagger and Rosie Jones. In 2010, LPGA player Christina Kim estimated that there were “no more than two dozen gay women playing the tour” at that time, out of a total of approximat­ely 230 women. “Whether the LGBTQ is what you support or not, we must liberate and encourage each other to be our best selves, whatever that may be,” Fujikawa said in his post. “It’s the only way we can make this world a better place for future generation­s.”

 ?? SAM GREENWOOD GETTY IMAGES ?? Tadd Fujikawa says he remembers how much other’s stories of coming out gave him hope in his “darkest times.”
SAM GREENWOOD GETTY IMAGES Tadd Fujikawa says he remembers how much other’s stories of coming out gave him hope in his “darkest times.”

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada